Bend Oregon Vacancy Rates Falling According to Survey

The Central Oregon Rental Owners Association (COROA) 2013 annual rental survey has been released documenting a snapshot of rental activity for houses, duplexes, triplexes/fourplexes and apartments for Bend, Redmond and all of Central Oregon.

The survey data is provided by rental owners and property managers from Sunriver to Prineville, La Pine to Redmond and Bend to Sisters. While it covers all of Central Oregon the data has not been verified so some of it may be inaccurate. Another thing to keep in mind when reviewing the survey, especially for rental houses, is that all like kind properties have been lumped together. In Bend, for example, where the data shows average rent for a 3 bedroom house in Bend the number includes all three bedroom homes whether they have one bathroom or two and a half. It also does not care where the rental house is located. Rental houses in neighborhoods where homes usually rent for a dollar a square foot are averaged in with those that rent for 50 cents/foot.

Despite the non-scientific nature of the survey it does provide some insight into trends in the Central Oregon Rental Market. The first thing that jumped out at me in this year’s survey was the vacancy rates in Bend and Redmond. In Bend, the vacancy rate for single family homes was two percent and in Redmond it was zero. At the time of the survey last year the vacancy rate in Bend was 4.2 percent and in Redmond it was 4.5 percent. Keep in mind this is a snapshot of a single point in time but those numbers are pretty amazing and also reflect what we have been seeing in the properties we manage.

The second piece of information that drew my attention was average rents. At first glance rents in apartments (5 units or more) and multi-family properties (2 – 4) units are up across the board. So it would seem that rents would also be up for houses, right? That has been our experience. The problem is, manufactured homes were included with stick built houses this year so comparing the 2013 survey to 2012 is pretty much useless where average rent is concerned. What I can tell you is, over the last two years each time a tenant has moved out of a property we manage we have raised the rent and not had any problems finding a tenant in less than 30 days.

If you are considering investing in the Bend, Oregon real estate market and have questions about the rental market in Bend please feel free to send us an email or call us at (541) 508-2930. Read more about our Bend Oregon Property Management Services